Simply Us

Photo a Day August 2012

2012-09-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

Here are my photos a day for August 2012. Some days were a little difficult and then others came very easily.

Now lets just hope that I can keep this up! (I think I'm already missing my picture for yesterday :) I took a picture, it just wasn't the theme that it was supposed to be. But since it wasn't Father's Day here in the U.S. like it was in Australia then I don't mind it not matching. So never mind, I'm all set! Happy Labor Day!

Fun & Ice Layout

2012-08-31T14:39:00.002-07:00

I don't know what is going on with the pictures in this post so just bare with me please! I am continuing on with my quest to make the most of Studio Calico kit since my next one will be shipping out next week!I wanted to use this cute but not great photo of my girls and I ice skating when we went with their girl scout troop this spring. The girls had never been and I haven't tried to ice skate in many years. But I didn't want another parent to have help my girls get from one side of the rink to the other so I laced up a pair and did my best. The girls and I had a great time and by the end Madison was getting really good and comfortable out there. Most of the girls in the troop were just going around clutching the wall for dear life, it was very cute.

I was very excited to use this beautiful cloud paper and couldn't bear to cut it up so I decided to use it as a background and even then I didn't want to cover up very much of it. I created a little collage at the bottom and the top to create a nice diagonal form of embellishment. I loved the doilies in the kit too! I have always wanted to play with some but just never picked any up. I did sprinkle some mister huey's on the page.

Up top I used several pieces from heyday, take note, memoir, and wood veneer, and I just have to say how much I adore the little pearl dots too! The Thickers are mistable ones that I used Boss Lady mister huey's to color... that is after my dog ate three letters and I had to re do them! The ampersand is an old piece from making memories that was glittery. I painted it with some mister hueys and a paintbrush. The corrugated butterfly is from jillibean soup and something that I have needed to use up for awhile now.

Oh, and check out the cute little envelope and tag that I used for some hidden journaling. I really should put the date there though huh?! Silly me!

Girls First Day of School

2012-08-29T15:42:00.002-07:00

Last Monday was the first day of school for the girls. Kaley is in the 3rd Grade, and Madison is in 4th. They are both so excited to start the year and of course to see all of their friends. Our mornings are so hectic that even on the first day of school I don't get to do a well thought out photo shoot unfortunately, but here are just a couple of the pictures that I took that morning before we all loaded up in the car and took the girls to school.

Madison was very excited about the purple panda shirt that we found her at Target to go with the extra special panda necklace that Nanny bought her. It's nice to see her in a pair of jeans that are long enough... give a couple of weeks and they will be high waters! I put their hair in what we call twists or knots and then they slept on them to get that pretty wave that is oh so girly!

Kaley found this super cute Minnie and Mickey shirt and paired it with these plaid shorts that she already had, this child has a style all her own. And of course, the purple tennis shoes. Both of girls love wearing sunglasses right now pretty much any time that they go outside.

Overall, it should be a good year for both of them. We have already had Back to School night for both girls and we already knew that Kaley's teacher would be amazing! :)

July 2012 Layout

2012-08-23T15:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I showed you how I created the collage of my photo a day instagrams, from there I simply saved it as a single photo and then I printed the whole thing out on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of photo paper, trimmed down the sides just a little and put the whole sheet on a layout. This is probably the easiest layout that I have ever done!

I added the days of the week stamps from Studio Calico that I used for the first time and I have to say that I love them so much! I can't wait to use them next year for Project Life. I added a strip of paper and some washi tape from Bella Blvd. Plus some letter and number stickers and a flair button and then topped it off with a wood veneer word. I wanted to include what each picture was supposed to be of so I wrote them around the edges of the photos. Very simple and a great way to document a whole month on a single layout!

Photo a Day July 2012

2012-08-22T12:57:00.001-07:00

I have seen so many people doing the photo a day challenges every month and I decided to jump in and give it a try in July. I have been curious to see if I could keep up with taking a photo every day using my iPhone and then maybe it would be worth it to do Project life next year. Although if I had decided to do this is in January of this year then I could have created a whole years worth of pictures in only 12 layouts. Here is the photo a day challenge that I did:

Each day I looked at my subject and it really helped me to see my daily life in a different way. Of course there were times that I got behind a day or so. But then I just went around my house and looked for ways to complete my task. Here is my collage that I created by uploading to my Flickr account and then using a website called Big Huge Labs and their collage maker. It was so much easier than the war that I was having with Photoshop (still haven't figured out CS6... like at all!)

I am doing pretty well with my August pictures although I do have one or two days to make up. I took the picture on the girls' first day of school but haven't uploaded them from my canon onto my iMac to then create the instagram off of my photo stream. I know, sounds crazy huh?

Good news is that my photography business seems to slowly be taking off and I think I'm going to be pretty busy this fall! Now I need to talk my husband into letting me get the Martha Stewart day planner at Staples so that I can keep track of all our schedules (school, church, girl scouts, photography, family, etc.) Because I don't know that I can spend much more time everyday in front of my computer inputting all of that info into iCal. And to do it all on my phone is ridiculous, can you say microscopic?!

A Cookie Birthday

2012-08-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

I am slowly but surely working my way down the list of layouts that need to get done. These especially need to get accomplished before my busy picture taking season begins. Between all four of my kids birthdays being in the next three months plus back to school, halloween, pumpkin patch, thanksgiving, and christmas, it seems to pile up and then it takes me until august to get caught up again! It's a never ending cycle for me but at least I am still working within this year I guess.

Well I decided to use Studio Calico's sketch challenge from last week to get my husband's birthday photos done. Here is what I came up with...

It is really tricky to get paper strips at an angle and yet cover the whole page so I came up with the circle to hold the journaling. I really should type my journaling more often since I hate my writing but it just seems like so much more work! I would have used white card stock as my base but because these instagrams had a white border I wanted them to show up so I brought out the kraft card stock. Most of this is the Memoir collection but a few pieces are from the kit. That grid paper in the corner is actually the background packaging from the Studio Calico die cuts! I love using up great packaging!

My Fave Photos

2012-08-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have to say that I was still a little scared about receiving a kit every month full of products that I didn't hand pick myself. I have become very good at picking a collection and only buying the papers and embellishments that as soon as I see them I instantly have a million ideas of how use them. My heart sings and my mind races and yes I even hear a choir of angels... ok, not really but pretty close. So to decide to start getting the Studio Calico kits for me was a huge decision. And I heard my husband's voice in my head and in reality say "But what if you don't like what they send you?" I spent months watching their releases and seeing the pages that people were making with the kits and I also came to realize that at this point 80% of my scrapping money goes to Studio Calico, and every day I fell in love with the things that were being created. But there was one thing that I didn't expect...

Not only do I love everything that I got in this first kit (I haven't brought myself to use the amazing white woodgrain card stock yet!) But the member gallery and the blog bring me so much inspiration! The challenges alone are enough to get me going on an afternoon that I can't decide whether to create a page or lay on the couch. So this is one of my first challenges that I am entering. It's the Member Scraplift challenge. I used mostly the kit, plus a couple of things that I had that were also Studio Calico, except for the yellow airmail washi tape which has become my favorite. I love yellow right now and am getting close to painting my pantry door yellow! heehee.

These are a few of my favorite instagrams that I have taken lately. It's not that often that I get on this side of a camera so I wanted to do something special with them. A couple of papers are from the Abroad and Heyday collections but the rest is all from the Summer of '69 kit. I am in love and can't believe how quickly this page came together. It really helps to have most of it picked out for you already.

At some point I will also share how I store my kit right in front of me, oh, and I guess I need to do some more posts on my room since I have changed a few things around! Ok, ok, back to work!

My Fave Instagrams from Seattle

2012-08-17T18:37:00.000-07:00

Neil and I had the opportunity in June to take 11 of our High School students up to Seattle and Tacoma on a missions trip to help out an organization called Network Tacoma. I took so many pictures that week, lots of them with my Canon and yet many I took with my iPhone. Which you know were just screaming to be made into Instagrams.

This one I think is my absolute favorite just because I have wanted to see the Pike Place market for so many years now and on that Saturday we got to tour the downtown area a little and that included the market.

I love how Seattle created this sports complex, where their baseball and football stadiums are right next to each other. And this tower is pretty cool.

I just loved how this clock tower was peeking out over the other downtown buildings.

It wouldn't be a trip to Seattle without a special drink from the original Starbucks. Hands down the best experience I have ever had at Starbucks. I loved it, and my drink!

We just barely got to see the needle as it was starting to rain, but one of the girls and I jumped out of the van and ran to get a few shots.

I am so in love with my burlap Tom's and Neil found a great deal on these Tom's in downtown Tacoma. This was taken at the airport before we came home.

One last shot of the two of us while on the plane, and no, my husband hadn't shaved all week. And no, I didn't like it. But it was a mission trip so I can't complain.

I love this picture of Mt. Ranier just after we left the Seattle airport. It is such a beautiful mountain.

We flew into Oakland on the way there and back and on the way back I happened to get this great shot of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I really don't like flying, so I spent most of the time listening to my playlist and ignoring the fact that at any moment I could plummet to my death, or the fact that I was trapped. Yes, I'm crazy!

This is the Tacoma Bridge and I just loved it's shape and overall awesomeness.

This little coffee shop in downtown Tacoma was so good. They had flavors that I had never seen before, like what I ordered... a Salted Caramel Frappuccino.

This was a beautiful building in downtown Seattle. The colors just popped.

Last but certainly not least. We spent some time in a few downtown Seattle parks talking to the homeless that seemed to be everywhere in that area. As Neil and I walked around there was a man preaching there in the park and some were listening to him yell at them about how they need Jesus. He was very much on fire for the Lord, but he was also very in your face about it and condemning those that don't believe. As he stopped yelling his sermon and picked up his things, and his gathered his posse, this older man sitting in a lawn chair picked up his trumpet and started playing "How Great Thou Art". I stood there listening to the beautiful melody perfectly played and realized that this man was speaking the love of God so much louder than the man that had been yelling at the top of his lungs. It was a moment of peace and beauty and something that I will never forget.

Those are just some of the images that I captured that week. There is so much more that I could tell you and share, but then I might never leave my computer! Hope you enjoyed, I know that I can't wait to go back there.

My First Smash Book

2012-08-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

About a year ago I bought my first SMASH book from K & company. I have slowly been filling it with random things I like, events and places that I go, and things from Pinterest that make me happy. Well I am thrilled to say that that first book is complete! Now of course I need to get to work on all of the others that I have... slowly but surely. Here is my cover with AC rose trim added on and rubons from Fancy Pants.

My inside cover with self portrait and my first washi tape, oh that seems like so long ago! Many, many rolls of washi tape later!

My first page I wanted to feature the person that I love the most in this world on, at that time, his new motorcycle.

These are pictures that I took of things that I love and use on a daily basis, first off my coffee, and not last (just added last) is my adorable kids.

Random things that I am thankful for. This was still very early in my Smashing style, later you will see that I evolved into a much more scrapbook/artistic style.

A page about my starting a photography business, and our trip to see Breaking Dawn.

Outfit inspiration from Pinterest, yes I printed out all of those pictures and cut them each out!

Pictures of me and our trip with my parents to see Kellie Pickler in concert.

My wish list on the left and on the right is a few of my favorite things which it took me a while to realize that it was all becoming food related.

Places that my husband and I want to go someday. Oh, someday...

My top 10 desserts from Pinterest that I want to make and try.

I decided to fill in a few of the smash pad lists and put them here. Then I used Pinterest to find images to go along with some of those things.

Bible Verses that make me happy, many are ones that I need to read often.

Home Decor ideas that I got off of Pinterest. This was before I dedicated a whole book to Home Decor/Ikea hack ideas. I really should get started on that one, I have the dividers done but that's it so far. Whoops!

Blogs I love to read are on the left page and on the right are some things in my house that make me happy.

Scrapbook pages that I like and things about them that I want to try out on my own pages.

DIY projects from Pinterest that I would love to do at some point. In all of that spare time you know!

More DIY ideas and I used the YOU to write my journaling about doing these projects.

Favorite books from my life on the left and recently read titles on the right. I need to read more often.

Pictures of Neil and I and words from poems and stuff that I have found online and liked.

Scrapbookers that Inspire me.

Recipes that I want to try, I need to expand our family menu desperately!

Shoes I love on the left and shows that I love on the right. I'm thinking now that I need to do a whole smash page dedicated to BBC Sherlock.

iPhone apps that I love are randomly written on the left and different accessories and gadgets for the iphone on the right.

This is the page that I wish wasn't there. I was trying to cover up the ugly horse face before I realized that you could just use paper to cover the whole page. But you try and you learn right? So this is about nail polish and the colors and how much I like them.

My mom and I work the scrapbook expos here in SoCal and this was the Anaheim one. Lots of fun!

I love Purses! These are just some of the ones that I have found on Pinterest and wanted.

My Right Now page is on the left and on the right is where I started getting a little more artistic with my pages. I took that picture of my new shoes while we were in Maui and it makes me happy.

A few more scrapbook layouts that I like.

My mom and I drove all the way to San Diego for the day just to take an all day class with THE Amy Tan AND Kelly Purkey! It was a dream come true for me to get to meet them, learn from them, and get to know them a little.

I love color lately and can't seem to get enough of it to add into my wardrobe.

About our trip to Vegas with my parents last August. We had a lot of fun.

A way to save and do something with all of the little drawings and "treasures" that my kids bring me.

Scrapbook supplies that I love and seem to reach for over and over again.

Tags from clothes that I have bought recently.

The cosmetics and skincare that I use including a peek inside my makeup drawer and medicine cabinet.

My obsession with the royal family.

Some random pictures of my that I haven't been able to find another use for so they found a home here.

I ended the book with my favorite drink, a Lava Flow, because anytime there is one of these in my hand, it's going to be a good time!

My back cover using a Queen & Co. strip and one more rub on.

Lucky Day

2012-08-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

I am so very excited because I finally took the plunge and joined Studio Calico! I have wanted to for a very long time but just couldn't commit the money. But now that my photography business is taking off I figured that I could handle it. So I got my first kit last week and was finally able to sit down and start playing with it. I have a pretty long list of pages that I need to complete and I figured that I am going to force myself to find a way to scrap any theme of pictures using my kit rather than being so reliant upon theme sets of papers and embellishments. I have gotten pretty tired of having to buy a new collection of holiday/birthday papers every year just to have something new to work with. NO more! My Studio Calico kits are going to take the place of that and the nice thing is that I don't have to choose it. It shows up on my doorstep and I am instantly inspired, I think it's a pretty good deal.

So here is my first Studio Calico page about our St. Patrick's Day (yes I'm a little behind!) But I loved how in the kit was this great green paper from October Afternoon and the some beautiful navy that seemed to compliment the green so well.

I used my new bubble mask with the Estate Green Mister Huey's (the best spray ink ever!) and I added in the arrow stamp from Amy Tan. A sheet from my 6x6 Hey Day set was a nice neutral to even everything out. I also used some of the October Afternoon chipboard buttons, circles, and banners to add dimension and reinforce the circles in the masked green. In my kit was also the tag and the "just a note" stamp which I am in love with! This all came together pretty quickly and I am so in love with it. I did add my own washi tapes, bare thickers that I colored with navy spray mist and a wood veneer camera that I stamped with black stripes and then colored in green and navy stripes but you can't see them very well. My final touches were to use the pearl crystals that came in the kit and I took a regular hole punch and punched out a few navy dots to fill in a few more holes in the bubbles.

We had a great St. Patrick's Day this year especially because Neil finally let me cook Corned Beef and Cabbage. He liked it more than he thought he would. I loved it and the Irish Soda Bread that I made from scratch. The kids favorite was the green grapes that I coated in Lime Jello powder. They were sour and oh so addicting. We also made Shamrock shakes for dessert and I loved how my shelves came out decorated for the holiday. What would I do without Instagram and Picframe?! They have made documenting life so much easier.

Hope you enjoyed!

Our Entryway

2011-12-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share with you what we did for the section of wall between the door and the stairs. I had this portrait that we had taken last year by Rachel Clare made into a canvas from Costco.

I was very impressed with the quality of the canvas and how it turned out. Of course, it also helps to start out with a great picture! I wanted to incorporate the same color that I painted the kitchen wall so I painted this 4'x5' rectangle on the wall and then my wonderful husband added white trim around the edges. Very easy and it adds so much to this wall where as just the canvas would have looked plain and small on this big wall.

Overall, I am really happy with it and I'm thinking of doing something fun here for the holidays but we'll see if I get around to that this year! I have more plans for the area to the right of this, a mudroom! I am desperate for a place for the kids' shoes (I include my husband in this!) plus jackets, backpacks and all of that other stuff. But I have to take it one project at a time right?
Right now we are actually in Lake Tahoe with some great friends so hopefully next week I will have some pictures to share from our trip!

Class Pictures

2011-12-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

I was blessed with the opportunity to come in to the boys' preschool class and take school pictures. We turned it into a fundraiser for the class and overall it went very well considering I had 23 kids to shoot!

Of course, the two kids that gave me problems were my own, but I think that is because they are so tired of me taking their picture all the time! Zachary was pretty good although that face in the picture above is pretty funny!

These are the kinds of pictures that Gabriel was giving me...

A face only a mother could love, right?

Zachary was pretty cute although then he started laughing and I got...

this one and...

this one, the little funny boy!

I do love this face though, classic Zach complete with sweater that he continually tells me has a rumbus on it, they are learning a lot in preschool!

I had each kid start off with a picture of them holding this chalkboard sign that we wrote their name on with the year. It is not only great for the parents to have the child's name and the year on it but then it also helped me when editing and copying the pictures to know who was who! I just got to do the other preschool class' pictures so maybe my friend will let me share a few of her son when I get them edited!

I'm BACK!!!

2011-12-07T12:19:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I know that I have been MIA for a long time now. I have had several really tough months and the thought of opening up my heart on here has been too much to handle. But I am ready to celebrate the holidays and then start the new year fresh, but more on that another day! For now, let's just pretend like I was never gone... ok?

Ever since I took that online Photography Class by Maggie Holmes my photography skills have improved so much and I have now officially gone professional! It's a scary thought for me but when I am behind a camera I feel at home and there is something about watching people through a lens that makes my heart sing. So let me share with you some of the photos that I have taken over the last six months and kind of fill you in on what has been happening in our lives...

This is once again that gorgeous couple that I have had the opportunity to shoot several times. We have this plan to take photos every 3 months for their first year but November got too crazy for everyone... boo! I still want to take some and just pretend that it is November.

We shot these out in Barstow at the Harvey House. This building has beautiful architecture and was a lot of fun to wander around and find new places to shoot.

Sometimes you don't even need to see faces to feel the emotion, and that is something that I love to capture!

As we walked down this little walkway I saw this arrow painted on the pillar and instantly had the idea for this picture, it is so perfect!
Next we jump to Halloween and my adorable children, I know I'm biased, but they are pretty cute!

Zachary was Bumblebee from Transformers and they were obsessed with their costumes for weeks wanting to wear them, I have learned my lesson, next year I will not buy them so early because they don't understand.

I love this one of them walking away holding hands. It is not very often that I get to capture the connection between these two. Usually the only connection that I see is one on top of the other while they wrestle.

And here is my Optimus Prime. Every year I find it funny that Gabriel picks the lead character and Zachary always picks the sidekick or secondary character, when in real life normally Zachary is the dominant one.

Kaley was Hermione and she loved having the robe and tie which came in handy when the final movie came out on Blu ray and we were able to dress up to watch it.

Madison was my beautiful Cleopatra and I had so much fun doing her hair and makeup for this.

We went to the pumpkin patch with the playgroup that I have been taking the boys to and we had a great time. I took each of the kids over to the pumpkin field and shot some pictures of them. They were surprisingly very cooperative.

Kaley was pretty cute as usual.

Madison picked out the perfect shirt since it matched the tree almost exactly!

And my Gabriel always has so much personality!

Madison turned 9 in October and Kaley turned 7 in November. I have never really done a big birthday party for them and their friends so this year we decided to do one big party for both of them since they share quite a few friends. I will share more on the party another day, but I these are the photos that I took and printed to sit on the mantle above where they sat to open presents.
Well, I guess for now that is it although I have so much more to share, I promise that I won't be gone for long!

Keep Moving Forward

2011-06-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

Let me first start off this post by saying that I'm not sure that I can make it through creating this post, the tears might just make it near impossible to type, next let me explain that my husband is a Youth Pastor. He has been for over 10 years now and he knows that there is nothing else that he could be doing with his life that could make him happier. I have always helped him when I can and my level of involvement has gone up and down with the craziness of our life. We have gotten to know students really well over the years and have had the opportunity to watch them grow from awkward, immature junior highers to adults graduating from college and starting families. We feel blessed to have had even a small part in their lives.

With that said let me tell you the part that sucks about youth ministry. It is an ever changing life and this is the time of year that things really start to change. We have a new group of seventh graders coming in and it is always funny to watch them squirm the first time that they are expected to sit for a Sunday morning youth service. There is a new group of High School freshman coming in which means a few new students in small groups and their first time at our summer conference (it's always fun to see their reaction to the summer conference that we go to because they never expect the magnitude of impact that it can have, this also creates a different group dynamic every year), and there are High School seniors that we get to celebrate all that they have accomplished and help prepare them for what is to come. And every few years I find a couple of students that I really spend time with and become close to and this is when it gets difficult for us.

This may be the hardest year yet... you may have seen me post pictures of these two before but here is a recap of the last year. I was blessed to be asked by Gabrielle Palayes to shoot her senior pictures, here is one of my favorites...
She is an absolute sweetheart and one of those girls that you can't help but want to hang out with. We had a blast the day that we went out and shot these pictures and I only wish that I knew all of the photography skills that I know now back then!

And then a couple of months ago they asked me to do a best friend's graduating shoot which just happened to coincide with my photography class so they got to be my guinea pigs for an afternoon.
This turned out to be one of our favorites and what you can't tell is that one is wearing an Edward shirt and the other is wearing a Jacob shirt!

Clarissa also asked me to take pictures of her and her boyfriend for their Senior Prom. We went into her beautiful backyard and took some sweet pictures of them.
These two are so adorable together that it makes you sick! lol Clarissa is so gorgeous inside and out it's no wonder she was a princess.

And now these two, that have been best friends since they were kids, have both graduated from High School in the past week. Here is one of my favorite photos that we got...
This picture just says so much about how far they have come together and I know that they will go so far in life and always have each other to lean on. They also know that they will always have me! They have also declared that I am their lifetime photographer (name the time and place and I will be there!).

This is where my heart is torn: one half is so proud of them for all that they have done, who they have become, and excited to see what more they can do in life; and the other half is sad that they will no longer be here on Thursday nights for small group, CIY just won't be the same without them, and the youth room will seem a little less bright without their smiling faces there. Just keep typing, just keep typing... This is our job in ministry, to help these kids navigate jr. high and high school while building a relationship with Jesus and each other so that they can go into the world and make a difference. And I have been so blessed to have been a part of these two girls' lives for the last couple of years, and I know that they are not going far, but now the relationship shifts. No longer are they students and I am one of their youth leaders, now they will be members of the church and I am a friend that is here whenever they need me (thank you Lord for facebook and texting!), and hopefully I will get to still sing on the praise band with them once in a while! This is when we have to keep moving forward, appreciating the past and the moments that we have shared, relying on the grace of God in the present, and trusting in Him for all that the future will hold and the new relationships that will occur.
I love you girls so much! Congratulations on graduating and surviving High School, may God Bless you in all that you do and thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me be a part of your life. He could not have given me two more incredible people to help heal me and give me the confidence to once again do what God intended us for.

Including the Art

2011-06-08T10:13:00.000-07:00

As a mom I am really bad about keeping all of the little "treasures" that my daughters make me. I do have a box that the girls know to put all of their school stuff in that fills their backpacks and twice a school year I go through it and pick out a selection of artwork and schoolwork that is a good representation of what and how they are doing in school. I then put that stuff into a file folder labeled with the grade in my filing cabinet. At the end of the year I go back through the folder and see if I can take anything out. I would love to start incorporating more of that stuff into the girls' albums but baby steps!

I have recently kept a small box in my scraproom that is for all of the little notes and cards and drawings that the girls make me, and I finally had a chance to sit down and scrap some of the ones from Madison.
I used the SEI Corrine line and I really love the cheeriness of it. I used a slightly older random picture of Madison that I had in my box that just didn't have a place so it was perfect for this. And I think that the crocheted hat adds to the artist flair!
Madison will write me an "I'm sorry" note when she gets in trouble. I love this sweet side of her that is crushed when she knows that she has disappointed us. I have saved this one in particular and that little square drawing is so cute. At her old school, her teacher asked the class to draw a picture representing their favorite day of the week. Madison drew a picture of herself playing football because Sundays are football days (at least for the good part of the year!) We are big Cowboys fans here so football days are very important!
I used this super cute trim at the bottom of the page to give it some color and texture. The top of the journaling I made with an EK Success border punch that looks like notebook paper ripped out.
Here is the inside of the anniversary card that she made us last year. It is so cute and detailed!
This is the cool part about the We R Memory Keepers 3 ring albums. I was able to take a regular 8 1/2 x 11 page protector and place some of Madison's larger artwork right into her album next to the page that I did. I don't need a second album and I didn't have to find a way to incorporate these larger pieces into a 12x12 page! Here is the other side...
This is the flag that Madison created for the kids' "camp-out" in the living room. The scrapbook page is right there behind it.
For right now this is Madison's album, you can find this one here although I have this one coming to me tomorrow in Strawberry to be her next album. I either order from Amazon and use my swagbucks or I order from Ritz Camera.com these are the two best places to get these albums at great prices.

I am hoping to create several more layouts to fit into this album and maybe even be able to fit up to this next birthday but I'm not quite sure yet so I already have the back up album for her in the brighter color. They didn't have that Strawberry a couple of years ago when I bought this pink.
Each album comes with 10 regular 12x12 page protectors in it and one of these divided 4x6 ones. I am planning to put any extra photos of her that didn't get scrapped into these pockets so that they are all together. At the bottom right there you can see that they also have a variety of configurations of divided protectors. I bought the assortment pack but haven't really played with them yet, I will be this summer though!

Thanks for looking at my daughter's album and hopefully it has inspired you to keep and use some of your kids' artwork in your albums!

One Sketch, Four Ways Part 4

2011-06-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here is the last installment of my One Sketch, Four Ways week. I'm thinking that by now I don't have to show you the sketch again, (if you do need to see it then scroll down!) This really has been a great way for me to get four Halloween layouts done super quickly so that I can move on and continue to get caught up... I'm about to edit December! Lol My last layout is of my sweet oldest daughter who in my opinion made the perfect Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.
For this layout I flipped the sketch all different ways to fit the pictures that I had but you can still tell that the basic components are there. I love how the title came out with the different letters. And I definitely used the circles again...
Since Madison was Dorothy, and I used the word rainbow in my title, I grabbed a non-Halloween embellishment that went perfectly and ended up tying in quite nicely...
The rainbow is from Sassafrass and the pumpkin is from AC. I also used some more of those little shapes that I cut out from the AC paper and put rubons on them from Scenic Route to show the date.

All in all, I think that these layouts came out pretty well and you won't even be able to tell that they all came from the same sketch because they all go into different albums! I love it! Hope you all have a great weekend!

One Sketch Four Ways Part 3

2011-06-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

I'm back again with another layout that I did using this sketch from Creating Keepsakes October 2010 issue...
For this layout I took the basic components and flipped them upside down. It was about this time that I ran out of white cardstock so I had to step outside my comfort zone and used black as my base. I guess that because my photos have always been so dark that I tend to rely on white cardstock to brighten them up. Like how I matted these photos in white. Now I won't have to worry so much about that since I know how to get bright, perfectly exposed photos from my camera and now I can start using more color! Yay!
I used this striped AC paper to bring lots of color to the pages and I also used two of the AC journaling cards, the blue one and the base for the Halloween Night rub on. I cut part of it off so that it looks like it runs off the page here...

And then I used the rest of it on the other page here...
and put the date there. I cut more circles out and scattered those around along with more of those hand cut little shapes. I love the AC buttons that match perfectly and had to add some of those for dimension. Glue dots work great for this.

One more layout to go! I am also working on something (well my husband is working on something for me) that I think will change the way that you approach big scrapping projects! Can't wait to share it!

One Sketch Four Ways Part 2

2011-06-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here is part two of the series where I show you how I took one sketch and created four different layouts to get things done faster! This is the layout that I did for Gabriel (a.k.a. Batman), you can see that I took this sketch...
and I flipped it backwards! And using different papers plus not matting the outside, it looks very different from the first one. And this is what I love about sketches, if you find one that you like... re use it!

I used mostly all the Boo! collection from American Crafts although I did try to really use up the rub ons from Scenic Route that I picked up last year. The orange decorative border is from American Crafts and I like it a lot but I had to really glue it down to get it to stop lifting off the paper. The journaling spot is also from AC and I love these things! This time I did incorporate the circles from the sketch, sometimes I just love circles!
One of my most favorite tools is my Sizzix Big Shot and the Tim Holtz die that I used here. I use this thing on everything from pages to cards to gifts! It is just so versatile and can be used on thicker materials too. I also tried to use up some old embellishments that I had in my Halloween box like this Happy Halloween title from MAMBI...
I love to mat one photo to make it the center of attention and this one of Gabriel as Batman is priceless to me.
Hope you enjoyed once again! Come back tomorrow for Part 3!

One Sketch, 4 Ways

2011-05-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have told you before that I love to work from sketches. Some days my creative mind starts out on a roll and I can sit down and know exactly what I want to create. I can see it and and it all just flows out. But then there are some days that I sit at my desk and stare at pictures and cardstock and I sit, and nothing comes to mind. These are the days that sketches work well. They jump start my creativity and allow me to add my own touches without having to start from scratch. Well, this sketch is from the October 2010 Creating Keepsakes issue...
It is a pretty basic sketch that had all of the components that I needed and about the right amount of pictures that I had for each child. Because I have four children and I want each of them to have a complete record of their childhood (and I have so much product!) that I try to create a layout for each child's album for events such as Halloween. But when you consider 4 two-page layouts plus layouts for pumpkin carving, pumpkin patch photos, Halloween parties and other special fall related events, I start to get a little sick of Halloween stuff. So I try to simplify things when I can. This is one way that I did that, I took one sketch and adapted it to create four different layouts. Here is the first one...
I started off sticking to the sketch very closely. I had the right number and orientation of pictures for Zachary's page and then I started to build my page.
This library card is something that I created with my silhouette a long time ago and never put to use. It is a print and cut and it worked out perfectly for my journaling. I cut out little pieces of one of the American Crafts Boo papers to add all over the pages.
The Boo rub on is from Scenic Route and the chipboard frame I believe is from Fancy Pants and I found it in my stash. I painted it with the new Jenni Bowlin paint dabber in Chicken Feed that I picked up at the Del Mar Scrapbook Expo. (I have to get more of these!) I also inked the edges with black ink. The little Remember This stamp is from 7gypsies.

Come back tomorrow for the layout #2!

The Girls' Room Redo

2011-05-30T10:23:00.001-07:00

My daughters are now 8 and 6 (although my oldest keeps reminding me that she will turn 10 next year, 2012) and as I kept getting mad at them for not keeping their room clean it dawned on me that I had not given them the tools to be able to keep it clean. So it was up to me to help them. Their room used to have just a couple of sterilite drawer units with their toys in it and then everything else ended up everywhere. Most days I wasn't sure that they had a floor!

Friends of ours have been keeping a desk in their storage unit for us for over a year now and I finally was able to get over there and get it. It belonged to their daughter that is grown up and I knew right away that it would be something that the girls would be able to grow into. Here is what it looked like before (taken with my iphone before we went to go buy paint)...
I actually loved the blue but it just didn't go with the girls' room. The fake keyhole was my favorite part and that drawer folds down for a keyboard someday when they are ready for it. One knob was broken off and that didn't bother me since I knew that I wanted different knobs anyway. I decided on a nice bright white and after two coats of spray primer and one coat of white spray paint (all Valspar) this is how it came out...
I found cute little crystal knobs at Lowe's and had to tape off the fake keyhole before painting because it is glued on. I really love how it came out because the lines of it are so clean.

Now it is a great place for the girls to sit and read or draw and one day do homework.

In my quest to bring in some old antique type stuff to decorate their room, my grandmother gave me several antique frames. They were all dark brown and one of them was an easel style frame without any glass. So I spray painted it a light pink and made it into this...
I had one of my favorite pictures of the girls printed in 5x7 and adhered it to a piece of chipboard. I then strung some bakers twine onto it using these mini clothespins that I picked up at Michael's in the dollar bins. The girls love having this in their room now.

Previously Madison had Hannah Montana bedding and the matching lamp. Although it was cute, it just didn't go any more. They still needed a lamp but I wanted something a little more girly and yet not themed. I had this lamp in my office but never used it. It was dark brown until I spray painted it that same pink. Now they have a cute little shabby lamp for their desk!

To help the girls with their storage issues, we picked up two Billy bookcases from Ikea and put them on either side of the desk. Now they have a place for everything, even a place for their snow globe collection where their brothers can't reach them.
I'm still working on the decorative aspect of this room. These pictures need to get hung up, two of them are paintings that the girls did with noodles and string and pom poms. The other is a canvas that Madison painted last year. And now that turquoise chair has a place too!

Hope you enjoyed! And I will share more as I continue to add flair to this room. Come back tomorrow when I share a scrapbook sketch and the first of four different ways that I used it!

The Blue Chair

2011-05-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

My 6 week photography class is now over and although I am sad that I will no longer get assignments and be able to share my pictures with my classmates, I am excited about everything that I have learned. I have gone from taking mediocre pictures on semi-auto modes of my camera, to shooting fully in manual and knowing how and why I choose the settings that I do. One of the things that we learned towards the end of the class was about visually interesting photos and using props, namely chairs. I was so excited to go to the Salvation Army to look for a cheap wooden chair that I could paint a bright color and use in some fun shots. Here is what I found for only $7.00!
It was boring white and wood and was crying out for a really fun color. So I went to Lowe's and bought some Valspar spray paint in Mediterranean Blue. I am so in love with this chair! That night I went out with my girls and my friend Kristina and her daughter Kaydence. We went out into what looked like the middle of the desert and found this great bush with bright yellow flowers. This was the perfect spot and we chose to go out about an hour before sunset to get a nice warm glow. Here is my favorite shot of my friends' daughter...
Isn't she adorable?! She loved this hat that I brought and was being such an adorable little ham! I also got a few minutes to shoot pictures of my girls although it was cold and windy. Here is my little Kaley Bailey...
She couldn't even take her jacket off because it was too cold. And my beautiful way-too-grown-up Madison...
I was so pleased with how these pictures came out that I decided to take it out into our side yard and place against our wood fence in the shade. Then I convinced the boys that they wanted their picture taken and they went with it. First up is Zachary...
I love these striped shirts against the blue chair and wood fence! And then maybe the most priceless face that I have ever seen... my sweet Gabriel...
How can that not just melt your heart?! Well, needless to say I am now excited about finding more cool chairs to paint bright colors and use in new ways! So always be on the lookout for a good deal and a new way to use something old!

Disneyland

2011-05-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

We spent Friday and Saturday at the "Happiest Place on Earth" although we didn't quite leave so happy!... but that's a long story! We got to see the World of Color show for the first time and we absolutely loved it.
I had grand plans of taking the girls around a few parts of Disneyland and finding some great places to take pictures for my photography class assignment. There are lots of little spots in the park that you wouldn't even know were in Disneyland if you just saw the picture but they have lots of great texture and color. But the weekend did not go according to plan (does it ever?!) and I got only a few shots here and there and never even got over to Critter Country like I wanted. But here are the few shots that I got.
There was a 45 minute wait for Toy Story Mania and every time that we go it is well worth the wait. This has to be my favorite ride in all of Disneyland and California Adventure. This was also the first time that we have been to Disneyland with the boys and not taken the stroller. Now I made sure that we had it in the back of the car just in case but the boys did really well after all. While we were in line the boys sat on this little curb and so I decided to start shooting thinking maybe I would get a cute photo. I was quite surprised at just how photogenic Gabriel decided to be!
Zachary is never quite as cooperative as Gabriel but every once in a while I can get a cute one of him if I have a fast enough shutter speed!
I love how Gabriel was standing against this wall while Daddy was getting fast passes for Soarin' over California (which the boys got to go on for the first time and they loved it!). Can I just ask... when did he grow up?!
I had only a minute while the boys got their picture taken for their passes to take a quick photo of Kaley. I wanted to take the opportunity because these chairs were so cute and the seat was yellow. But then it turned out that you could barely see the yellow and the back of the chair blended in with the wall! Oh well, you can't win them all!
This is the kind of thing that I was looking for, you would never guess that this is even in Disneyland let alone right across from the Jungle Cruise in one of the busiest spots in the whole park! I was kind of mad because when we were about to get in line for the Jungle Cruise I looked over and saw this spot and loved that it was in the shade and was the perfect set up. By the time that we got off the ride, the sun was hitting it and was casting a big shadow right across where I wanted Madison to stand! So I had to adjust what I wanted and I still ended up with a cute picture. It just goes to show, take the picture when you see the opportunity and don't wait!
This is my favorite photo from the day! See how adorable Gabriel was being... I love that kid! And I love this blue shirt on him!

Lately...

2011-05-10T13:08:00.001-07:00

I know that I have been very MIA lately and there is no excuse for that but it truly has been a crazy few weeks and I haven't had much to post about! My photography class has kept me quite busy and I love how much better my photos are getting. So let me fill you in on what has been going on lately...
My kids patiently waited for Daddy and Pop Pop to build their new swing set that they got as an Easter present. I just love how they turned the chairs around to sit and watch, and of course they kept asking, "Are they done yet?!"
And finally they were done and it was time to play! And they have played out there almost every day ever since!

My photography class gave me an excuse to spend an afternoon with these two awesome girls and do a best friend/ graduation photo shoot. We had so much fun and drove all over Victorville and Apple Valley but we got some great shots!
I am also learning to take better pictures of my kids inside my house. Every week I learn more and am able to put another piece of the puzzle together. I have big plans for this weekend's assignments! This is my Gabriel and I just took this picture this morning while in the girls' room taking pictures of Madison's American Girl doll as an example of front lighting. Oh yeah, we are also re doing the girls' room but I'm not done yet so I have nothing to show you yet! :(

We also celebrated my husband's birthday by having some friends over for burgers and I got a custom frozen custard cake from Freddy's. Boy, was it yummy too! Lesson learned while trying to take photos of my husband and his cake at 8:30 at night inside... use the external flash that I have! Duh!
My amazing husband bought me one of these for Mother's Day! He is so amazing and I love it so much that I almost don't mind talking on the phone! He did this only hours after I got into an accident with our van. It truly has been a roller coaster of a couple of weeks!

I have a post planned where I show you one scrapbook sketch and 4 different ways that I use it. But I am only halfway done with the layouts so I need to get busy!

Spring Brunch Centerpieces

2011-04-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

I recently had a spring brunch with some family and I decided to take that opportunity to try something that I had been wanting to do for quite some time. These fabric lollipops are what started this whole hair applique business and they turned out to be such a cute centerpiece for the tables. I knew that we were going to use a large dining table so I made the main centerpiece very long.
This planter box I bought at Target and it was I think brown to start off but then I spray painted it with my good ole Heirloom White spray paint and then put floral foam in the bottom. I made the fabric lollipops with t-shirt fabric that I bought at Joann's. The pink and blue I bought by the yard, the green I bought a $2.25 t-shirt and then just cut strips out of it. The yellow is actually white fabric that I bought by the yard and then spritzed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Lemon Zest. I hot glued the strips while twisting them onto circles of cardstock. I had to make two for each lollipop because I then sandwiched them together with hot glue and the dowel in the middle. I tied a ribbon onto them and tah dah!
I covered the floral foam with green rafia grass (which was perfect being just before Easter!) The banner is made of little rectangles that I cut from patterned scrapbook paper and then I ran them through my sewing machine with a straight stitch and adhered them with glue dots and ribbon bows. This was how I displayed our dessert also... cake pops! Yummy! You can tell that the bottom picture was after we had devoured about half of them!

This is the smaller version that I made for the kids' table. Just like the big one but with fewer lollipops (and cake pops!) I only attached a ribbon bow to this one. The planter is also from Target and I didn't have to spray paint this one because it was already this great purple color!

Did you make any fun centerpieces for Spring this year? Or have you ever combined a centerpiece with showcasing dessert before?

My New Adventure

2011-04-27T17:31:00.000-07:00

With 4 kids, a wonderful husband, housework, friends, family, scrapbooking, my photography class, and church commitments, do I really need another adventure?.... well, of course I do! I rarely get pictures of myself but if you look at this one you will see the evidence of my newest creations...

I recently have been searching for cute headbands with fabric flowers on them that cost less than an arm and a leg. But my biggest problem is that headbands give me a headache, so when I find one that is comfortable I am in heaven. But what happens when my basic headband isn't enough? Well I created a little something to add some personality.
I have one basic black plastic headband that I like to wear and is comfortable and I did find some elastic headbands I think by Goody that I like. I needed to create these appliques to be versatile to work on either headband so this is what I did...
I am hand sewing snaps onto the felt strips so that I can attach them onto elastic headbands too! I create the base out of felt because not only is it strong but it's soft against your head. The single flowers and even a few of the smaller two flower appliques can be put on with those metal bendy clips. I wore this one on Easter...
It was really cute and went perfectly with my dress. Oh yeah, and by the way, isn't my hubby handsome?! I just had to get that out there in cyberspace. :)

Once my friend saw what I was making she convinced me that I needed to open an etsy shop... so I did! I opened yesterday and I'm really excited. I'm just starting out so I will be adding lots more designs and colors over the next few weeks so keep checking it out! See Simply Harris here